Mesothelioma Article

What is mesothelioma?

Mesothelioma is an uncommon form of lung cancer. It is a tumor of the mesothelium. If the mesothelioma is localised it is considered benign but it is malignant when it is diffusely spread.
Mesothelium is a membrane that lines several body cavities. In the thoracic cavity it is called pleura and the abdominal cavity it is called peritoneum. The mesothelial sac around the heart is the pericardium. The main purpose of the mesothelium is to cover and protect internal organs of the body. Mesothelioma most commonly affects the pleura, the membrane lining the lung.

So what is mesothelioma? It is a form of cancer commonly associated with asbestos exposure that affects the pleural membrane of the lung, the peritoneal lining of the abdominal cavity and the pericardium of the heart.
The majority of people who develop mesothelioma have been employed in occupations where they have been exposed to asbestos, washed clothes of a member of the family who worked with asbestos or used asbestos cement products during home improvement /renovation. It is most frequently inhaled as asbestos dust.

Mesothelioma is very slow to appear and can take between 20 and 50 years to develop following exposure to asbestos. Since the 1940 several million people in America have been exposed to asbestos but the risk of developing mesothelioma is higher among shipyard workers, miners in asbestos mines, workers in asbestos mills, asbestos producers and workers in the heating and construction industry.

Since the 1970s, the asbestos industry has been regulated by the Environment Agency and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Of the six types of asbestos, chrysotile, crocidolite, amphibole, tremolite, actinolite and anthrophylite, amphibole carries the highest risk of developing mesothelioma.

Mesothelioma is not a contagious disease. In other words, you cannot catch it by being next to someone with the disease. Mesothelioma is caused by exposure to asbestos that happened several years ago.
There is, however, a higher risk of mesothelioma in families of asbestos workers because members of the family can inhale asbestos dust from the asbestos worker’s clothes and hair.
The connection between mesothelioma and asbestos was established by Wagner et al. in the 1960s when they published an article showing asbestos as a cause of mesothelioma. They published results showing that mesothelioma resulted from exposure to chrysotile asbestos.